CAPT Joshua W. Devine, PharmD, PhD, is the Regional Health Administrator (RHA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) for Region 5. As RHA, he serves as the senior federal public health official in the region, providing leadership and support for the work of the Department focusing on public health action. Josh’s work includes multiple high-level and high-visibility projects designed to better incorporate HHS and OASH priorities to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities throughout the nation. 

 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Josh functioned as a trusted colleague, working to ensure that each state’s needs were being communicated and advocated for. His leadership ensured the concerns and obstacles experienced by the states and localities were communicated, understood, and acted upon at the national level. His expertise in leading coordination and collaboration to mobilize testing, and subsequently vaccinations, no doubt saved countless lives and prevented abundant suffering. Further, his leadership in advancing work to address obstacles to health equity such as vaccine hesitancy, maternal morbidity and mortality, and harm reduction related to substance misuse, certainly translated into lives saved and reduced health disparities. The measure of benefit of true public health leadership is less obvious as it resides in the ability to build partnerships to mobilize scare resources to facilitate more equitable care and services to intervene to prevent and mitigate death, disease, and disability.

 

Josh’s expertise and unmatched leadership has resulted in a staff that is highly effective in recognizing and attending to a huge array of public health threats ranging from racial and ethnic disparities, HIV, maternal morbidity and mortality, climate change, and yes, of course COVID-19. This Service to the Citizen Award opportunity appears to have been created especially for Josh, one who demonstrates excellence in delivering services that impact the publics' lives and rebuild trust in government. You will find no finer demonstration of these traits and values.